Papers of John Adams, volume 19
r.18 1787
Last night I received your Letter of the 12. Mr Jarvis and Commodore Jones are arrived here from New york both charged with large Dispatches for you.1 Mr Jarvis sent his Packet on by Col. Trumbul who departed from hence for Paris last Thursday. Comr Jones went off a day or two ago. but both will arrive to you before this Letter. The Papers they carry, with a Renovation of your Commission at the Court of Versailles, contain I presume orders and Instructions about every Thing in Holland.
As my Dismission from the Service, arrived at the Same time, not a
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Word has been Said to me. Nevertheless Nil Americanum Alienum,2 and I have the honour to agree with you in Your opinion of the Propriety of keeping good our Credit in Holland. I should advise therefore that the Interest on Mr Fizeaux’s Loan at least Should be paid, and the Creditors requested to wait for their Capitals till further orders can be obtained from Congress. if they will not consent to that, I would pay them Principal and Interest, provided There is Money enough in the hands of our Bankers and neither you nor they have received contrary orders. No Authorities from me will be necessary. Your own Letter to Messrs Willinks and Vanstaphorsts will be sufficient. But if they make any difficulty, which I cannot conceive for Want of any orders from me, I will send them.
You have recd Authority to negotiate the Redemption of our unfortunate Countrymen in Algiers. To you therefore I Send a Petition which I received from them a few days ago.3
With the highest Regard, I am / Dear sir, your most obedient and most hum / ble servant
N.B.4 the Letter which Colo. Trumbull will deliver addressed to Count Sarsfield, may be sent to his hotel as the Count is on the point of departure for Paris—5 on referring to a resolve of Congress of the 11th. of october 1787. I find the interest of the foreign debt & that part of the principal due in 1788. has commanded their attention & I suppose put in proper train for operation
Yours—
RC (DLC:Jefferson Papers); internal address: “Mr Jefferson.”; endorsed: “Adams John.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 112.
James Jarvis (ca. 1756–1820), a former New York City merchant, had socialized with the Adams family at Auteuil (New York Evening Post, 13 Jan. 1820; JQA, Diary
, 1:254;
AFC
, 6:121). For the letters carried by John Trumbull and John Paul Jones, see Jefferson, Papers
, 12:415–416.
Nothing American is alien to me.
Not found.
The postscript is in WSS’s hand.
Not found.
Signature in JA’s hand.
r.25. 1787
By the last Post I answered your Letter of the 12, and Yesterday received yours of the 16.— Com. Jones has before now delivered you dispatches that will Serve no doubt for your direction. Mr Van staphorst, will have no Objection to an handsome Commission, for paying off, the Debt Mr Fizeaux mentions: and Mr Fizeau, will be glad
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to have it paid off, that the Money Lenders not knowing what to do with their Money may be tempted to put it into his French loan. But I am persuaded the Money Lenders on receiving their Interest would very willingly let the Principal remain, till the Arrangements of Congress can discharge it.— it will cost the United States Eight Per Cent, to transfer this debt, and four or five thousand Guilders are worth Saving.
It would rejoice me in my soul to meet you, before I embark for America. But I am so ill, of an uncommon Cold,1 the present Weather is so formidable and a Journey to Holland in the Winter is So cruel, that I am obliged to excuse myself from taking leave in Person of the States general, and shall Send a Memorial.2 The Time for me is short and there are many Things to do, so that I must confine myself to London, but if you could venture over here and See the August Spectakle of Mr Hastings’s Impeachment, you would make us all very happy.3
I Should advise you, by all means to make a Journey to Holland: but not before the Month of May. a Letter to some of the Corps Diplomatique, will introduce You to them and to Court. and Messrs Willinks and Vanstaphorsts will Shew you Amsterdam, and explain to you Money matters.
With Sincere Esteem and Affection, I am / Dear sir your most obedient and most / humble servant
RC (DLC:Jefferson Papers); internal address: “H. E. Mr Jefferson”; endorsed: “Adams John.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 112.
JA suffered from a severe cold that “disabled me from every thing for three weeks” (to Thomas Brand Hollis, 4 Jan. 1788, below).
In a 25 Jan. letter to Hendrik Fagel (JA, Works
, 8:470), JA enclosed separate memorials of the same date to William V and to the States General, both below. In a 12 Feb. letter to JA
, below, Fagel wrote that he could not accept the memorials and returned them, compelling JA to travel to The Hague and take his leave in person on 7 March.
For the trial of Warren Hastings, see JA’s letter of 3 Feb. 1787 to John Jay, and note 3, above.